December 12, 2015

How do you know if the video you just created is getting seen and (probably even more important) getting the results you want? View count? Reach? Engagement?

First you have to know what you want your video to do and who you want to see it. When I was producing videos for General Dynamics, we had to be the sanity check for so many of our internal clients who came down to our “hidden film factory” wanting a video. After a detailed conversation to establish the what and the who, many times the client didn’t actually need a video to get their message to their particular audience. But when a video was produced, we spent a lot of our pre-production time hashing out these details.

This was in a time period before the Internet, so collecting data on the effectiveness of the video (or film) was difficult to track. You had to have very detailed calls to action or other tests to determine retention of the information. Today, it is a different story.

Any video you post on a website today will start to collect data. Lots of data. Maybe too much data if you don’t have a plan.

Things like views, engagement, social, comments, play rate. With all the possible metrics, you have to figure out which data will give you the answers. But as with so many things in life you need to ask the right questions.

As a voice talent, in order to figure out what to charge, I look at things like eyeballs and shelf-life. How the video will be distributed and for how long.

To arrive at a fee, I then combine this usage estimate with the amount of time it will take me to do the job, the kind of finish work needed, any special file format requirements, if a directed session is needed, etc., etc.

Of course all of these are estimates and happen before the video is produced and collecting actual data. But it is important for both the producer and the talent to think about these things during the pre-production phase – or even before – during the bid phase. (See my blog post from earlier this year – “How Much Does It Cost for a Voiceover?”

He just “yes”es you to death, and as he takes your dough He tells you
“Yes, we have no bananas
We have-a no bananas today
We’ve string beans, and onions
Cabashes, and scallions,
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned tomato
A Long Island potato But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today”

How does this apply to our business? Bananas = Time.

While I don’t have empirical evidence of this, most voiceover people can usually balance all the projects that show up on their “doorstep” and meet client deadlines. Particularly if you are doing self-directed short form work.

However, there are times when you are actually too busy to take on another project on any given day or week. In most cases, the client can wait for you to work it in. And work it in you will, even if it means staying up late, getting up early or working on the weekend.

But not all the time. Sometimes a job comes in that is just too big to meet a deadline. It happens if you are doing audio books where the finished product could be a dozen hours. It happens in eLearning when the client needs the entire math text for grades K through 5 recorded. It happens in large telephony/IVR jobs where you need to deliver 5000 files on a certain date.

What you don’t want to do is agree to do a job and then not have time to make sure that it meets the quality standards that you have established for yourself. The client is expecting no less.

So, how do you say – Yes, we have no bananas?”

Just be honest with yourself and with your client.

“I am very sorry, but I just can’t meet that deadline. I have several other projects that need to be finished before I can start on yours. Is this a hard and fast due date? Can you take partial delivery?”

If they can’t wait for the project until you have time to make sure that it is up your usual error-free work, then you may have to turn the job down. Better to tell them about your schedule issue and let them make the decision. Most of the time something can be worked out. If not, then it is good to have a handful of people that you could refer.

Our agents used to handle this kind of issue. If you were unavailable, they offered up the next choice. But the nature of our business has changed – especially for those of us who live outside the major production cities and do most of our work in our home studios self-directed. The details of scheduling are in our hands. We are the ones who negotiate and allocate our time.

Most of the time I can work in that extra job that comes in at the last minute and maintain the high quality product I have become known for. If I feel I can’t, then I’ll be honest about my time and see if we can find a way to make it work.

At the moment, I actually have lots of bananas. Lovely little Ice Cream bananas. Two huge bunches of them. And they will all come ripe at once. So I will require assistance to consume them.

Rate this:

November 6, 2015

WoVo is an association of voiceover professionals (both union and non-union) seeking to inform and educate about best practices, standards for ethical conduct and professional expertise. It has an online casting engine that features ONLY vetted professional voices, unlike the company being discussed in this blog post.

Remember the commercial actors strike in 2000? Pay-per-Play was one of the big things the union was asking for. The business has never really been the same.

It is hard to predict the future, but being responsive to changes so that you don’t get so far behind that you can never catch up should be part of your DNA by now. But changes are not always good without understanding the past. Creative fields are slowly being strangled by over saturation and plummeting rates.

Part of it has to do with new younger producers who know nothing about the way things used to be done. And they don’t care. The Internet provides them with access to everything in the blink of an eye. Ask and you shall receive. But you really need to know the right questions to ask.

I am a dinosaur – producing, writing and performing as on and off-camera talent since the 70’s. But I am also an early adopter of technology and take personal pride in staying close to the bleeding edge.

When I started focusing on voice talent work in the late 90’s, I dove into the Internet and have been a Beta tester for several online marketplaces matching voice talent to producers. The growing pains were just that – painful. And still are.

The concept of streamlining the casting process is good. The execution is not as good. The big online casting sites – what we took to referring to as “Pay-to-Play (P2P)” because they charged a fee – began with a good concept that appeared to be advocating for the talent, but has instead (at least in some cases) been shown to be powered by pure business greed.

Giving away free information was (and still is) a way to gain traction in the search engines. I’ve had free stuff on my personal websites since 1996. I also joined many online voiceover groups and freely provided advice and information.

One group I supported early on was Voices.com (I am not putting a link to them here – I’m sure you can find them) because they had a lot of free information for voiceover talent. I created 2 podcasts that have been on their site since 2007/2008. I paid the fees to receive auditions from them and a couple of other developing P2P sites.

No more. I have not been a paying member of Voices.com or Voice123 for several years now. I have maintained a free profile on each site, but that has also changed as of today. I have asked that both my podcasts and my profile be deleted from Voices.com until such time that they recognize that their current business practices are simply not serving the professional voiceover community, nor helping the production community understand the value of the voiceover talent.

As the site grew larger and larger, the focus seems to have changed from providing an online “dating” service for talent and producers, to how much profit can be made on the backs of the people who are paying the fees to list themselves on the site. Frankly, they are acting as an “agent” and a casting director. I am not opposed to a streamlined system for this process. But if you are acting like an agent and/or casting director, then play by those rules. Go ahead and charge a commission (the escrow fee in the case of Voices) and even charge to coordinate large jobs (as long as this doesn’t undercut the rate to the talent in order to do so).

But as the “dating” service has evolved into functioning as an agent, the site should NOT be charging the talent a fee to be on the site.

The Internet has changed everything. We ask. Someone writes some code. And voila, we have an answer. But be careful what you ask for. Do your due diligence. Think about the consequences of what you are asking for.

In the case of online casting, more and more people claiming they are professionals with the result being fewer and fewer people who can make a full-time living doing the work. This isn’t unique to the voiceover business, all creative fields are suffering from lots of people lowering their rates (or being asked to lower their rates) to try to snag some of the work.

One group is trying to find a balance. World-Voices.org has an online casting site that has ONLY vetted professional talent – www.voiceover.biz. It is brand new, so there will be growing pains here as well. The talent listed on this site are all members of WoVo, which means they pay a small annual membership fee to keep this advocacy group for voice actors and the voiceover business in general functioning. A listing on Voiceover.biz is a benefit of membership. Less than $50 a year, as opposed to upwards of $400 per year for a listing on one of the big P2P sites.

It’s new. It doesn’t have a lot of activity yet. There are undoubtedly going to be some glitches, but it might be something you would want to try when you are looking for a voiceover casting site that is all about the voices and not about making a profit.

October 24, 2015

If you are not being paid W2 wages, then you may fall into the category of self-employed, freelance, or independent contractor. Or, you may simply be being paid incorrectly. If this is the case, then don’t be surprised when the red flag goes up and the IRS comes knocking.

Self-employed person (architect, consultant, engineer, etc.) who provides certain services to a second-party called the principal (or client or owner), or to a third-party on behalf of the client. An independent contractor is not under the control, guidance, or influence of the client and, unlike an employee, does not owe a fiduciary duty. The client neither deducts the payroll (or the withholding) taxes from payments to the independent contractor, nor contributes the employer’s share. To be legally designated as an independent contractor, an individual must (1) be free from the control of the client, (2) be able to exercise his or her judgment as to the manner and methods to accomplish the end-result, and (3) be responsible for the end-result only under the terms of the contract. The client is not responsible to the third-party for the actions or torts (civil wrongs independent of contracts) of the independent contractor unless the client (explicitly or implicitly) has authorized them, or where the actions of the independent contractor are (more or less) controlled by the client.

Some people THINK they are independent contractors when they possibly aren’t.

The IRS has some specific guidelines that might help you stay under their radar if you are working job to job and filling out a Schedule C. Or if you are hiring people and want to avoid an audit with potential fines and penalties.

Ask yourself a few questions. There are a lot more than this, but these three questions get to the heart of the issue.

When you are hired for a job, does the person hiring you have the right to control the result of your work, but not the means and methods to achieve it?

Teacher – Employee (union contract, W-2 wages) Although I use my process and experience as the basis for this work, my schedule is set by the college and the location and the equipment is provided.

Staff Producer/Writer/Talent – Employee (non-union, W-2) Full-time staff position initially as a worker-bee, but then as a supervisor for a large government contractor. While our creative department wasn’t regimented like most cubicle farms, we still needed to be there. My creative process was the same, but I didn’t get to pick my crew and they provided my computer and other tools.

Voice Talent – sometimes Employee, sometimes Independent Contractor (union jobs are W-2, the vast majority of the other voice work I do is Independent Contractor).

Voice acting today is very different than it used to be. Most of the work I do is on my own time, in my own space, with my own tools. Sometimes I will have a director on the line. On rare occasions I will go to someone else’s studio to record. Sometimes I will pay to go to a studio when I need specialized equipment, or when my equipment isn’t working (usually due to some snafu with the phone lines).

On-camera acting is different. Unless you are picking your own wardrobe, using you own camera in your own studio and delivering the self-directed takes to the producer, you are (according to the IRS) most likely doing employee work. On-camera actors do pay for a lot of things out of their own pockets to improve their craft, but in the end, they show up on the set and are told where to stand and when to take a break. Sometimes the lines are pretty clear.

But today’s voiceover talent is truly an independent breed of talent. We may have agents scattered here and there, but we have our own websites, our own expensive studios and related equipment (mics, computers, sound cards, mixers, and more mics). We have a business license and paid the fee for the fictitious name ad in the local newspaper. We spend hours marketing our services and honing our image. We spend money to have customized demos created that showcase our talents. We work to improve our craft taking classes and attending conferences that we pay for ourselves.

We negotiate our rates. We send out contracts detailing what we will be doing and when. We send invoices. When invoices are not paid, we spend more time trying to get paid.

What’s my point? Think about what you are doing and how you are doing it. No matter what your role is in a production, take a little time to visit the IRS site. While it is not specifically targeting the video production business, it has a lot of great resources to help you pinpoint whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor.

No one wants to be audited.

And if anyone can find a comprehensive guide specifically for the video and digital media production business, please post some links!

Some people swear by taking lots of mini-vacations. I’ve talked about that before. My current “job” as a voice talent allows me to take time off pretty much whenever I want – a couple of hours at a time. I do this on a regular basis. Take off on a hike up Cowles Mountain, or down to the Grinding Rocks in Mission Trails. Head out to the beach (when the water is warm enough) to catch some waves on my body board. Take a long walk to the Post Office to check for sacks of money. Putter around the yard. Maybe do some art.

I’m lucky. Not everyone can do this. And, of course, there are days when the schedule is so tight that I can’t break away. But no one is peering over the cubicle wall at me wondering why I got back 10 minutes late from lunch. But, I do spend a LOT of time in my studio in front of the computer.

Getting out of town requires a bit more planning, but it is doable. Mostly on weekends because of class I teach on Monday’s and Wednesdays for a couple of hours. But since I don’t have a travel partner to get away for an adventure somewhere, these slightly longer trips are mostly to attend voiceover or media production related events. Lucky for me, these gatherings are a delightful mix of business and pleasure. Over the past several years, I have been able to get to at least 2 per year.

However, taking a 2-week break is daunting. And rare. My last 2-week break was in 2010 to Germany, Italy and Austria. And I had my laptop with me for auditions. And I stayed for a short while at a friend’s place who owns an audio studio where I did do some actual work. It was a vacation with a little bit of work, a little bit of family and a lot of time on my own with no set agenda.

This time was different in many ways. I left my laptop at home and traveled a full day to (and a full day back from) Bali meeting a dozen smart, funny, adventurous women for 12 days on this amazing island. I may need to watch “Eat, Pray, Love” again to see if I recognize the Bali that it portrayed, because the Bali I saw seemed very different. The bustling center for Art and Music – Ubud – is where we spent most of our time. With the narrow streets filled to capacity with people, scooters, motorbikes and passenger vans, you needed to be aware at all times. But step into a doorway and suddenly that falls away. Restaurants bubble with mouthwatering aromas. Your eyes can hardly absorb the colors and shapes of the flowers and statues. Your very person feels welcomed by the smiles and warmth of the people of Bali.

The trip was organized by Myle Walsh – Water from the Moon Travel – who has been traveling there for more than 30 years and leads small groups (of mostly women – handpicked to invite harmony) through her adopted second home. She surrounds you with wonderful Bali people who share their homes and businesses, their lives, and their time with you. The schedule was fast-paced, but several days at the beach in Amed on the East side of Bali in the middle of our trip offered us time to process what we had seen and done so far and primed us for the rest of the adventure.

We saw dance and music performances, temples, monkeys and museums. We made art. We cooked. We visited a village school bringing school supplies and toys. They sang us the Indonesian National Anthem. We taught them the Hokey Pokey. We relaxed on the beach. We had massages. Some of us attended a cremation. Some rode elephants. Some rafted. Some rode bikes. We walked in the rice paddys. We shopped. We ate – and we ate – and we all dropped a pound or two in the process.

I was as unplugged as you can get these days with Wi-Fi in every corner of the globe. My time online was spent uploading pictures of the wonderful experiences we had in Bali. Email did come in with a very few needing an immediate response. I did lose at least one job because I wasn’t available. I had to pass on a number of auditions. But other jobs waited for me to get back.

So, now I’m back. After a little “on purpose” down time. What I am finding is that it is taking a little bit of time to just jump back into the pace I’ve been setting. I want to stop and read a book. I want to leave the studio and go find a massage somewhere. I want to gather fresh greens and things from the market and stir fry some Gado Gado.

We’ll see how long this lasts. For right now, I’m basking in the Bali glow.

Intelligence is focused on the details – add a little experience – and creativity leaps off from there.

Add a touch of luck (preparation meets opportunity) and the level of success can be unbounded.

How did I get here?Sometimes, I feel a little guilty about the fact that without a lot of effort I have made myself a fine little creative life – one I never really planned to have.

Oh, I know I did a little planning as I started to see opportunities, but it seems as though it was just one foot in front of the other following my instincts and ending up here. My experiences along the way influenced which of the many possible paths I ended up taking.

Brains ain’t everythingI’m pretty certain that my intelligence is not out of the ordinary. But I may have used my brain power to steer me towards the things where success was more easily achieved.

When bringing to mind my efforts in school, the creative side certainly stood out, with Art being not only my favorite subject, but my best subject.

My decided lack of success in Latin and Math resulted from something which I now recognize as probably laziness (perhaps an understanding that Latin was something that I would probably never need?) and not lack of intelligence.

Now, the math – hmmm, I’ll self-diagnose with number dyslexia – or dsycalcula – to make myself feel better about flip-flopping numbers when trying unsuccessfully to keep the station logs while employed at a TV station. The program manager was constantly on me about mistakes such as writing 4:54:45 instead of 5:45:54. Try as I might, about twice a week, he would have to correct the logs and that made him grouchy. I don’t even think about trying to balance my checkbook anymore – you flip-flop an entry and you are off by .03 or .07 cents. In reality, I think it is another example of being lazy. The live booth announcing job was pretty boring in the grand scheme of things.

Outside of that part-time announcing job, I was wearing lots of hats (producer, director, writer, on-camera spokesperson, VO talent) and that provided me with never ending experiences.

Touch and go…
In general, when looking at the path I took to get to where I am today, I see what appears to be a lot of touch and go activity. I’m game to try anything once – as long as it doesn’t require that I sign a waiver not to sue for accidental death – that kind of activity I stay away from.

And try a lot of things I have. Some things I have done more than once or twice and decided “meh.” Some things I have achieved a high level of expertise – even getting a few awards – but never to the point of being a fanatic. It appears that activities and experiences stay with us and influence what happens next.

Additionally, I have always had a high level of curiosity. Peering into, under and around things. Taking things apart to see what makes them tick. Not always successful at putting them back together again, so they may not tick anymore.

No limits
I suppose I am only limited by the amount of effort I put into what I do, because I think I’m pretty well set with the smarts I need and the experiences to continue to create my particular “art.”

…expert creatives don’t need to be more intelligent than the average person. They simply do three things more diligently than anyone else: they have more experiences, they think on their experiences more often, and when they start pursuing potential outcomes to problems or projects they simply work more with the ideas they come up with (whereas everyone else gives up after evaluating just one or two possible ideas, or by letting their inner critic prevent them from exploring more).

Here’s to those of us who have the freedom to explore and use our smarts to create art.

Rate this:

August 27, 2015

Several times a month I will get an email from a potential new client or an old client asking me how much would it cost to record – say 2 minutes of audio. That’s all. No additional details.

Intellectually I think we all know that this is akin to asking how much does it cost to paint a house. There are so many particulars involved that it isn’t possible to answer that question without asking a few questions in return. The more information you can provide in the initial email, the better, especially if you have a deadline that requires a quick response.

In the case of the house, you need to know how big it is. How many levels. How many windows. What kind of surface. How much prep needs to be done. What kind of paint. What kind of budget does the homeowner have. Where is the house located.

The same kind of thing happens with figuring out what the fee is going to be for a voiceover. Union or non-union the questions that need to be answered are pretty much the same.

So, here is a list of things to consider including in that initial email or phone call:

Detail the length of the piece. A word count is great for longer types of scripts. Don’t talk pages, because a page could be different depending on the font, the margins, the paper, etc.

Do you want the talent to use their own studio self-directed – or a phone patch? Or do you want them to be hooked up via ISDN, Source-Connect, ipDTL? Do you want the talent to go to an outside studio? Your office?

Indicate the use, the shelf-life and eyeballs (or ears). This is helps the talent figure out the potential audience.

If something is only going to be seen once in front of a small group, then perhaps the fee could be scaled back a bit…unless the project is something so high level that it has great significance and a huge production budget. The end budget for the production could help figure out a fair rate for the talent.

Is it marketing or training?

Will the project end up forever on YouTube?

Will there be other potential uses for the project? For example, will pieces of it be used in advertising? If so, what kind and how much? You may not be able to answer this question, but it should at least be in the back of your mind if it is a possibility.

If it is a radio or TV spot, is it generic with the potential of unlimited use? Or is it something very specific that will quickly become outdated and fade from sight.

New ways of estimating eyeballs are evolving and it is good to consider that shelf-life may be surpassed by the number of views as “pre-roll” advertising matures.

Is the script being translated from a foreign language by a staff member, or by a skilled translation company used to writing for a native American speaking audience. If not, then some script doctoring might be needed. Some talent can provide this service and work it into the fee.

If you have a draft of the script, it would be wonderful to include that if permissible. Seeing the actual content can answer a lot of questions – or at least provide fodder for specific questions.

What is the turn around time required? Faster may mean more $ depending on the project.

Does the voice have to match any timing that has already been established? This takes more time in the studio, so it is something that may show up in the quote.

Do you want any editing done on the voice track. For example cutting the session into some or many separate files with unique file names. Some talent is used to creating many separate files, but this information should be provided or discussed at the quote stage.

Any special requirements or unusual expectations should be described. Government projects usually have lots of acronyms. Let the talent know that if your script includes alphabet soup that you will provide pronunciation guides. This also applies to anything with paragraph numbers that need to be articulated. You know how to say Section 6-EX-W.203, Paragraph xii A402. But the talent probably doesn’t! Do we say “dot” or “point?”

These are just a few things to think about as you approach a voice talent or an agent to give you a quote for your project. Your project may only need to answer a few of these questions. But the more information you know and can provide in that initial contact, the better.

Oh – one more thing to include! If you have a budget in mind, please pass that information along. A range is fine – just something so that the talent can quickly look at your expectations and the parameters of the project in order to quickly and succinctly respond to your query.

Rate this:

August 21, 2015

No one can predict the future. Well, a few people have correctly predicted the future. In 1909 Nikola Tesla predicted that we would be carrying personal wireless devices. But in general it is interesting and frequently amusing to read predictions from 100 years ago – even predictions from 10 years ago. And the way technology is changing – even trying to predict what will be happening a year from now is daunting.

The best you can do is study what is happening now and try to respond as quickly as possible to try to ride the wave and then keep checking for the next wave. For example, video advertising. Will it be short and sweet (like a “vine”) or more traditional or will it go for the interactive approach.

We can see that video is not going away – so that’s good news – but how it is being used and what shape it will take is constantly evolving.

If you are creating online ads, you need to start studying the research about what the viewers are “liking” or responding to. Whitney says…

Shorter may not always better in mobile. Sometimes, giving viewers the unexpected can deliver better results.

As a voice talent, one of my jobs is to constantly research what kinds of voices are being used – what attitudes – what sounds. I am also a writer, so I study the scripts – what kind of approach works for the product/subject, the audience and the delivery method.

Finding the “right” approach is a challenge for any producer, especially for those creating ads. On the corporate side, it is only slightly less complicated, because the internal audience is changing as well which means that the way we communicate with them has to change.

I predict that the people who will be successful in the coming years will be the ones who don’t hold on to the way it used to be.

August 12, 2015

There are a plethora of global media communications awards competitions, as well as many more local and regional competitions each year. Why do people enter?

Well, when they win, it could be for the marketing benefits – letting your clients and potential clients know that you produce high quality work. It could be that awards competitions touch our deep-seated need to be admired and respected by our peers. Social Media has jumped on board the award bandwagon and sites such as LinkedIn have special areas in your profile where you can list your awards.

If you know that something you have produced is truly fabulous, entering it in a competition could pay back the entry fee in PR. And if your clients are anything like my clients, they love the fact that your work for them is recognized as top notch.

To get the full effect of the video, you need to be in the room – immersed in the spider web walls. Very cool. Oh, and it won a Golden Reel!

Will I enter something in the 47th MCA-I Media Festival – which is accepting entries now? I will have to dig through my recent projects to see if there is one that brings all the elements together into something award-worthy. Most of the time, I don’t even see the final projects.